811.504 Mexico/207
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by Mr. W. G. MacLean of the Division of the American Republics
Mr. O’Donoghue79 telephoned at noon today to inform the Department that the Embassy had received from the Mexican Foreign Office permission for the War Manpower Commission to renew contracts of Mexican railroad workers, which contracts begin to expire today, and for further recruiting of 5,000 Mexican railroad workers in Mexico City under the agreement of April 29, 1943. In reply to a question, Mr. O’Donoghue stated that it was his understanding that the permission to recruit 5,000 additional workers meant that the Mexican Government agreed that 20,000 Mexican railroad workers could now be maintained in this country. (This understanding is in accordance with the Ambassador’s despatch no. 13,283 of September 29, 1943.)80
I told Mr. O’Donoghue that all concerned here would be very happy to have this definite clearance, and that I would immediately inform the War Manpower Commission that they could proceed with further recruiting in Mexico City at any time and could proceed with the renewal of contracts of workers now here, as those contracts expire.
Mr. O’Donoghue said that there had been some delay in securing the above commitment from the Mexican Foreign Office because Mr. Manuel Tello [Page 578] of the Foreign Office, who has been handling the matter, had been sick and absent from the office.
Mr. O’Donoghue stated in regard to the Mexican members of the commission and the place of meeting that the Mexicans had apparently not reached a decision. He expected to receive this information the first of next week. I told him that the clearances mentioned above were of course the matter of first interest and that our representatives were ready to meet the Mexican representatives at any time. He said he would inform the Department as soon as further word was received from the Foreign Office.
On the basis of a letter from the War Food Administration, I then asked him to seek the approval of the Mexican Government to permit the Administration to use up to 2,000 Mexican agricultural workers in packing plants of the Pacific Northwest, which were having an unprecedented receipt of cattle and which had heavy orders for allied and domestic consumption to meet in the near future. I said that the War Food Administration would continue to take care of these men under the full terms of the international agreement of August 4, 1942, as amended on April 26, 1943, and especially see that wage rates, which vary from 60 to 80 cents per hour according to the task performed, would be the same as those paid to domestic workers in the packing plants under consideration. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he would immediately present this request to the Mexican Government and that he would follow this request early next week with a request, the subject of a recent instruction from the Department, that permission be given to transfer workers from the agricultural agreement to the non-agricultural agreement for railroads and industry during the next few months.